20 Sep 2023, Climate change: Apart from the use of renewable energy resources and the adoption of sustainable water management practices, strategies that can be adopted by India to evade climate threats include enhancing forest and ecosystem conservation, and promoting energy efficiency. Climate change is resulting in extreme weather events across the globe. India is one of the countries most adversely affected by the impacts of climate change. For instance, over the past few decades, India has been experiencing extreme heat waves. This year, unprecedented rain occurred in the pre-monsoon period in India. India is one of the countries most exposed and vulnerable to heat globally, and has witnessed a significant increase in three-day concurrent hot days and hot night events from 1951 to 2016. According to the report on the first assessment of heat action plans in India, heat waves in India are projected to come earlier, stay longer, and become more frequent, and urban heat island effects will exacerbate these heat impacts.

Sep 19, 2023, MOTIHARI: Urging farmers to turn to organic farming, governor Rajendra Vishwanath Arlekar on Sunday said that excessive use of chemical fertilizers and pesticide had made the soil sick. "There is a need to adopt natural farming to produce grains for the benefit of mankind, animal and birds," he said while inaugurating the state-level natural farming conference, organised by Dr Rajendra Prasad Central Agriculture University, Pusa, in Samastipur district. He said, "Excessive use of chemical fertilizer has badly affected land, water and air. As a result, we are facing climate change problems. The number of fatal diseases has shot up. Doctors and scientists have stressed the need of consuming food grains, vegetables, milk products and fruits, which are free from toxic. Only scientists cannot do more, the farmers should also come forward and switch over to the farming with organic manure." MP and former Union agriculture minister, Radha Mohan Singh, said natural farming or organic farming was the only way to promote self-sufficiency and food security. "Use of chemical fertilizer and pesticides poisons the land and water heavily. The after-effects of this are environmental consequences, including loss of topsoil, decrease in soil fertility, surface and ground water contamination and loss of genetic diversity. On the other hand, natural farming reduces the cost of agriculture production and helps to maintain environment health," he said.

21 September 2023, After heavy losses due to crop damage and low prices, onion farmers in Maharashtra have decided to take matters in their hands. Allium producers in the region have decided to not sell produce to traders and sell directly in the market instead. Conventionally, onion farmers bring their produce to the Agriculture Produce Market Committee (APMC) where the harvest is auctioned daily and sold to the traders. The Lasalgaon APMC in Nashik of Maharashtra is the largest wholesale onion market in Asia. However, farmers have been facing losses for at least five years and the support from the government has been poor, Bharat Dighole, state president of the Onion Growers’ Association, told Down To Earth. Recent interventions of the government have only added to their woes, he added. “When onion crops were fetching good prices and the rates could have increased to Rs 50-60 per kilogramme, the government imposed a 40 per cent export duty, crashing the prices,” Dighole explained, adding that the move came after the onion prices increased by 10 per cent in August compared with July.

September 20, 2023, The problem with the fertilisation of land is as old as agriculture itself. When early humans first began to engage in settled agriculture, they quickly realised that while crops require nutrients for their growth, repeated cycles of cultivation and harvest depleted these nutrients, reducing yield over time. Early agricultural societies began to notice that certain areas produced better crops and that soils could be replenished. This observation led to practices to restore essential nutrients in the soil necessary for plant and crop growth. Indigenous communities around the world developed methods of fertilisation, for example, using fish remnants and bird droppings (guano) as fertilisers.

September 20, 2023, In a significant development, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar have unveiled transformative initiatives aimed at revolutionizing agriculture, enhancing financial inclusion, optimizing data utilization, and improving the livelihoods of farmers across India. The Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare introduced three key initiatives: Kisan Rin Portal (KRP): This collaborative effort promises to revolutionize access to credit services under the Kisan Credit Card (KCC), facilitating the availing of subsidized agricultural credit through the Modified Interest Subvention Scheme (MISS). Ghar-Ghar KCC Abhiyaan: This ambitious campaign seeks to extend the benefits of the Kisan Credit Card Scheme to every farmer in the nation, enhancing universal financial inclusion. Weather Information Network Data Systems (WINDS) Manual: The WINDS initiative establishes a network of Automatic Weather Stations & Rain Gauges to provide hyper-local weather data, aiding agricultural decision-making.

SEPTEMBER 19, 2023, The government will integrate 28 new wholesale mandis (market yards) with the online trading platform eNAM, taking the total count to 1,389 in the country, Agriculture Secretary Manoj Ahuja said on September 19. At present, 1,361 regulated mandis in 23 states and four Union Territories are linked with the electronic National Agriculture Market (eNAM), launched on April 26. "To further strengthen e-NAM, 28 new mandis were approved recently for integration to take the total count of mandis to 1389," Ahuja said at a workshop here on eNAM 2.0. He also emphasised on the importance of providing key information to the stakeholders of e-NAM at the right time. "It is important to remove information asymmetry," he said. Ahuja further said the information pertaining to quality of produce is as vital to the buyer, as the prices of commodities are vital to sellers. "From an economic perspective, the whole value chain must be made efficient and wastage must be reduced," he said. Faiz Ahmed Kidwai, Additional Secretary in the Agriculture Ministry, said e-NAM 2.0 will be an advanced version of the existing e-NAM, wherein the reforms in the State Acts will be very important in the success of e-NAM 2.0.